


The Unforsaken Road

by waywardCryptid



Series: Battesimostuck [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Sburb/Sgrub Sessions, Alternate Universe - No Sgrub Session, Gen, Illustration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:41:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23269369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waywardCryptid/pseuds/waywardCryptid
Summary: Karkat Vantas, you've gotten yourself arrested. Again. You have two choices: succumb to the executioner knocking on your door, or find a way off this ship.A prequel one shot companion to another in-progress fic.
Relationships: Sollux Captor & Karkat Vantas, Sollux Captor/Feferi Peixes
Series: Battesimostuck [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1702765
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	The Unforsaken Road

carcinoGeneticist [CG] opened memo on board TEAM ANTIBLOODTHIRSTY.

CG: GREETINGS PUNY BRAINLESS FOLLOWERS IT IS YOUR RIGHTEOUS CAPTAIN SPEAKING.  
CG: I HAVE A FEW ANNOUNCEMENTS, SO PAY *INSANELY* CLOSE ATTENTION.  
CG: NUMBER ONE: PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF MY ANCESTOR WILL YOU STOP BLOWING GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS UP IN OUR HONOR?  
CG: VERY COUNTERPRODUCTIVE.  
CG: AND IF YOUR PAN IS TOO SMALL FOR ME BIG SMART TROLL WORDS, NOT GOOD.  
CG: BAD TROLL, GO TO YOUR BLOCK AND THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU’VE DONE.  
CG: NUMBER TWO: IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS YOU CAN’T JUST GO ON ANY OLD WEBSITE AND ASK.  
CG: IF YOU’RE NEW HERE: WELCOME, THIS IS ILLEGAL.  
CG: STOP BLASTING THIS FORUM ON EVERY PAGE ON THE INTERNET.  
CG: WE’VE HAD TO CHANGE SERVERS AT LEAST THREE TIMES THIS WEEK AND IT’S GETTING REALLY TEDIOUS.  
CG: NUMBER THREE: I HAVE TO LEAVE FOR A WHILE.  
CG: I DON'T KNOW HOW LONG BUT I JUST HAVE TO.  
CG: FUCK, I MIGHT NOT EVEN COME BACK TO THIS BOARD.  
CG: IF I DON’T, DON’T COME LOOKING FOR ME.  
CG: I’M SURE YOU CREEPS WILL FIND ME AGAIN ANYWAY.  
CG: 69  


carcinoGeneticist [CG] left memo.

* * *

“Karkat Vantas,” singsongs the legislacerator that has been on your ass for the last hour, “if you think you can evade your fate for the rest of your extremely short life, you are highly mistaken.” There is a smile in their voice. It sends a chill up your spine, the joy that some teals get from this shit.

You’ve decided to hide in an unused bunker in the lowest part of the ship. They left the most panless moron on the ship to watch your cell. It wasn’t hard to get out; the electronic keypad they used to seal you in was easy to break. The moron in question was passed out, sleeping. 

Keeping your back pressed against the furthest wall, you hold your palmhusk in your hand with the brightness turned as far down as it can go. The replies to your memo come flooding in. Hundreds of your followers frantically try to call you back, to give them more details. You’re a very good leader. You’ve managed to keep them away from finding out the night you were arrested (again.) 

_The door to your respiteblock busted off the hinges and slammed against the wall. You, quite dramatically, spun your desk chair around to face your guests. “Gentletrolls,” you mocked, “to who do I owe the grand fucking pleasure?”_

_You knew exactly who you owed the pleasure._

_The legislacerator accompanied by a subjugglator cleared her throat. “Karkat Vantas, you are under arrest for high treason against the Empress, inciting mass riots, and your general existence.”_

_“Time to get a move on, brother,” the clown said behind a grin._

You have a “friend” you’ve made plenty of deals with to break you out before, but this time it happened all too quickly and gave you no time to contact her. So instead, you went quietly and allowed them to jostle you aboard the _Exactecutioner_ , one of the highest caliber ships for executions. Only the finest and vicious teals and purples allowed on this party ship.

“I’ll make a deal with you!” Lawtrolls never make deals. “You present yourself to me, and I won’t string you up on the spot. I’ll allow you a trial, and then the Church can decide what to do with you.” Like hell this troll was going to pass up the opportunity of a lifetime: ending _your_ specific life. Not to brag, but you’re kind of a big deal.

The door behind you opens with a loud, long creak. You shrink back further into the wall as if you can meld yourself with the architecture. The shadow of a formally uniformed figure appears on the wall next to you. They wield nothing but a noose— but you know first hand not to underestimate a legislacerator that is holding hands with a piece of rope. The one true matesprit to a tealblood. “Last chaaance,” they drawl. You want to vomit.

Their footsteps get closer, slow and taunting, and you inhale raggedly what you assume to be your last few breaths. The light overhead clicks on via a cord, fully revealing yourself quivering like a newborn grub. They give you a sickeningly bright smile full of teeth.

Fuck this, you are _not_ dying by the hand of someone so _unapologetically ugly_. You spring to your feet and draw your scythe from your specibus. The tealblood raises their noose, looping it in circles in the air to land it around your throatstem, but you’re the slightest bit quicker and manage to bounce it off of the curve of your blade. 

They’re being too cocky for their own good, giving you the upper hand with your running-for-your-life movements. You scramble around them, making sure to land a quick blow to the back of their knees with your specibus as you pass. They buckle to one side, yelling in fury, “you worthless, mutant _fuck!_ ” 

“Real fucking creative, nookbreath,” you pant, already halfway down the hall. Where you’re going, you have no idea— but there has to be somewhere safer than here for the time being. Another cabin to escape to, a nice and cozy hold to hide in. By now, the lawtroll had probably alerted everyone else aboard that you’ve weasled your way out of their grasp, so in no time you should graduate from fucked to _very_ fucked!

You don’t make it to your unseen destination. A hand reaches out from a side room and snatches you into a tight, dark space. The door slams shut. 

“What the fu—!”

“Sh.”

The other troll in the room slaps a bony hand against your flap. It’s gloved and smells like metal. You hold your breath. 

_One, two, three, four…_

It takes eight counts until the approaching clamor of screeching laughassassins fully dies down. The door is solid, so there isn’t a way to see out, but you suspect you heard at least three voices chanting threats just for you. Your lusus taught you how to fight, but clowns are a different breed of violent. There’s no way you would have survived that— or even had heard it coming. 

The body pressed against yours reaches up slowly and snaps. A red psiioniic light sparks at their fingertips. “You’re welcome,” he says, now partly visible. You want to throw up again. You’ve seen this guy before— most of the time perched obediently behind the heiress. 

You push on his ribcage with your elbows hard as if that’s going to get you anywhere in this tiny cleansing product storageblock. “Fuckofffuckofffuckoff—”

“ _Cool it,_ ” he hisses, voice still kept low. His hand goes over your flap again. “I’m not going to turn you in or some shit. You just need to keep quiet. Two seconds, give me two seconds.”

Your complaints are muffled beneath his glove. 

He snuffs his fingertips out. “When I open this door, you’re going to follow me and follow me close. You’re not going to fall behind. You’re going to stay right on my heels,” the psionic instructs. “If you can manage all that, you can get off this ship alive.”

Without another warning, he flings the door open and begins to run.

* * *

You’ve seen this guy before.

Sollux Captor is the highest ranking lowblood in the entire fleet. He stands on lanky limbs, about six feet in height, and carries a mess of too-long hair covering his dual set of horns. On his uniform sits the gemini sign. The goggles that cover his eyes are gaudy and very obviously appointed to him by someone else. Someone who keeps him as a pet. He isn’t the worst looking troll you’ve ever seen, but he looks horribly worn down. Deep, grey-yellow bags hang around his ocular sockets. You have seen your fair share of enslaved yellowbloods, and this is just how their ‘owners’ like them. Broken, like a scrapped husktop.

He had taken you down the hall you originally planned on going down. But instead of you, alone, running aimlessly down into what would probably have been your death, he tapped in a code on a pin pad and took you into a dusty, long abandoned control room.

“What are you doing on this ship?” You grill him, “isn’t your princess going to wonder where you are?”

“We have about fifteen minutes.” he says, worried and blatantly ignoring your question. “Fifteen minutes to get off this ship.” Sollux chews at his bottom lip and stares out the horizontal window that takes up the majority of the wall.

“Amazing! So you’re just going to go and launch me off into the great black unknown?” You ask, still catching your breath from the running.

“No,” he says tersely. He shifts focus on the window to your pitiful mug. You catch your own reflection. Have you always looked this unkempt? “Not unless you keep pissing me off,” he adds for good measure, “I’d show a little gratitude to the guy who just saved your ass, by the way. Just a tip.”

If you were feeling anymore chipper, you’d be tearing this asshole apart. You’d be making fun of his lisp right now. You’d be telling him off and warn him who exactly he’s fucking with right now. But at this point, you’re just as exhausted as he appears. 

Sollux rubs his pointer and his thumb up and down the bridge of his nose, pushing his bicolor goggles up and pushing the hair in his face up with it. He turns to face you. “Sollux Captor,” the psionic introduces, holding a hand out, as if it’s anywhere near the realm of necessity.

You don’t take up the offer. Instead, you fold your arms like a 3 sweep old and close your body off. “I know who you are.”

“I’m just trying to be nice to you, you wriggler. I’m not one of them.” He hesitates for a moment. “This wasn't my idea. I’m just as freaked out by all this shit as you are.” As if that’s going to make you feel any better.

“I don’t need you to be nice to me,” you bite, “I need you to tell me what the fuck you want from me.”

Sollux sighs heavily, visibly fed up with your squabbling. “If you would listen to me for two seconds and keep it from going in one ear and out the other,” he sneers, “you would realize that I am on your side. If you haven’t noticed, I’m the only reason you aren’t being clobbered to death right now!”

“So blast me off, _hero!_ What are we waiting for?” You snap, “get me out of here already!” You ball your fists, anger in your chest boiling.

“I can’t. Not right now. Not without—”

“ _Sollux?_ ” The tiniest voice you’ve ever heard whispers from around the doorway. 

Instantly, Sollux seems to relax. His shoulders fall and the electricity in his oculars dies off. He even smiles slightly. “FF,” he calls back, “it’s okay.”

Your acid sac lurches again when the fucking _heiress_ comes into view. You must be stuck in your own personally crafted Handmaid’s dreambubble. But despite your efforts to jolt yourself ‘awake,’ there she stands. You’ve only seen a couple of seadwellers in the flesh, and every one of them have been terrifying. Feferi Peixes is no different. She’s a mass of black hair, her clothes cling to her body, her growing fins are perked up, and her gills seem to vibrate with every breath. She is just as conventionally pretty and well-groomed as you’d expect from a royal; her arms are decorated heavily with gold bangles and colorful beads and her eyes are painted with her color— but still, the fuchsiablood is downright fucking scary. 

“Fuck,” you croak. 

_This is where it ends,_ your mind berates you, _you shouldn’t have gone anywhere with this fuck._

“Is this him? Reely?” She asks, incredulous, taking your glorious presence in. She studies you hard.

“Yeah, it’s him. Order up, your highness.”

“Sollux!” She scolds, “don’t be like that! This is a glubbing _miracle._ ” Feferi approaches you, excitement written plainly on her face. Her black painted smile beams. She takes you into her arms and hugs you hard.

You actually do spill your guts this time. It nearly misses her. Right on the floor, a splatter of bile claws its way up your throat and right onto the tile. Feferi gives a small, “ _oh_ ,” filled with pity. You’re hunched over on your knees. Your eyes widen as the seadweller kneels down next to you. “Carpkat,” she soothes, “it’s alright!” She trails her palm repeatedly over your spinal column. “Poor thing is in shock.”

Sollux throws in from the side, “I told you he’d go out of his pan…” 

“Hush!” she exclaims and goes back to rubbing your back as you empty your acid track onto her floor. The heiress is two steps away from papping you. You’re light headed. “You’re safe now, I promise.”

“This is fucked,” you mumble weakly, “this is so _fucked_. I’m fucking dreaming or in hell or _both_.” Feferi helps you to your feet.

They let you collect yourself for a minute. You were led to a stool next to the control panel and sat there, staring blankly at your hands as your pan runs a mile a minute. “We’re going to send you back to Alternia,” Feferi explains gently, “we have someone there who will harbor you for a while. It’s all going to be okay.” She keeps repeating _it’ll be okay_ as if anything will ever be okay again. “Sollux will go with you.”

Apparently, this is the first time he has heard this part of the plan. “What?!” He yelps, “and leave you here? After all _this?_ No fucking way, FF. I can’t leave you alone.” His eyes start to crackle, tiny shocks of blue and red spraying into the air. “It’s bad enough we left out of nowhere. If you go back alone, who knows what they’ll do to you."

“I’m not alone. I have Eridan. _He_ needs someone down there.” Feferi gets up from the seat she was on next to yours, standing her ground and keeping a cold hand on your shoulder. “I’m sorry, Sollux, but I don’t think he can make it to her on his own.” She glances at you and whispers, “no offense.”

You bury your head in your hands. “Oh, don't mind me." Your voice is shaking. "None _fucking_ taken.” You don’t have the capacity to take anything right now.

“Do you realize how bad this is going to look?” Sollux continues to argue, "they're not all that stupid, they will put it together!”

“I’ll get his information wiped!” Feferi contends. “Eridan will do it. Eridan will help us. He has to. Glub, I’ll tell them Eridan got him!”

Sollux fires back, “FF, I know you want to be hopeful here, but we still don’t know if ED can be trusted, and—”

“Sollux Captor you are _going_ , and that is the final order from your _heiress!_ ” Feferi commands. Her fins flutter with anger and she bares her teeth.

The psionic flinches. Broken in, just like they like them. At the end of the night, Feferi is still a royal; she is still the descendant of the Witch, and she still has full control over him. Sollux folds, admits defeat. He says to you finally, “I guess I will be your captain on the S.S. Getting You the Fuck Out of Here. At least I know how to pilot something as simple as an escape pod.”

Sollux summons said pod, and it lowers itself into a hub you didn’t notice before now. You totter your way inside, examining its innards. The hardware looks like it works, despite the signs of age throughout. Sollux goes to follow you in.

Feferi catches him by the arm and plants her flap onto his cheek, softening again. “I’ll miss you, beebrain,” she teases. “Please don’t be mad at me for too long.”

He rolls his head around his neck, corners of his mouth betraying him and pulling into a smile. He holds her tight. Something about this dynamic is off putting.

“Red for you,” Feferi says and buries her face into the gemini symbol on Sollux’s chest.

“Red for you,” Sollux echoes.

_Gross._

He steps into the pod. There isn’t much wiggle room with the both of you inside, but at this point you’ve gotten fabulously acquainted with having Captor’s skeletal hide so close to yours. As Feferi closes the door, she sends you off waving with the saddest smile she can muster. The miniature ship heaves and shakes as she releases you into the wild unknown, ultimately leaving your life in Sollux’s hands yet again. All you can do is hope that the interaction you just had was genuine.

“So,” you break the thick silence, “you’re pailing the heiress?”

“Shut the fuck up, Vantas.”

You have a feeling it’s going to be a long flight.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> "Oh Lord, I have been told,  
> that I must take the unforsaken road."  
> \- Troll Marina and the Diamonds, "Mowgli's Road"


End file.
